I can't find a code on my milk jugs. They are from a local farm. USDA Organic, grass-based, Grade A Jersey milk, low temperature pasteurized, non-homogenized, from Texas Daily Harvest in Yantis Texas. It's really good milk. It's available in a couple of small stores around here, but I have it delivered to a community drop-off point weekly.

I wish I could get raw milk, but in Texas, dairy farmers must be licensed to sell raw milk to the public, and they must sell it directly from the farm. It can't be sold from retail stores. All of the farms within reasonable driving distance that I've contacted that are licensed to sell raw milk require a weekly purchase amount committment. And they all have waiting lists to get signed up. Demand for raw milk is considerably greater than the available supply, I've been told.

That's the current thinking in much of the world. I do not agree that licensing and regulation is necessary to ensure safety. I just wonder how in the world people managed to get by for millenia without licensing and sanitation and safety regulations imposed on them by force, courtesy of their local authoritarians. I don't want to get on a political rant, so I'll leave it at that.

Cleanliness, sanitation, and proper handling of milk are necessary for food safety and disease prevention. Not licensing and regulation.

But how do we ensure cleanliness, sanitation, and proper handling without regulation and licensing? I live in Connecticut, and everything is pretty tightly regulated, much more so than in New york where I used to live. I sometimes have wondered if we could have less regulation, but stronger prosecution for deliberate casual disregard for basic safety and sanitation.

Fair questions, dthelmers. As usual with such questions, there is more than one possible answer. Basic assumptions have to be examined first though. For example, who is "we" and how did "we" become responsible for ensuring food safety for anyone other than for ourselves and those with whom we engage in food-related interactions? Sure, no one I know wants to contract or to be exposed to someone who has tuberculosis, but does that give me a right to regulate whether and under what circumstances they can buy and sell food? My answer is no, it doesn't.

As to whether we could have less regulation, yes, that is clearly possible. Food regulation varies considerably around the world, ranging from none to "tightly controlled", yet humanity survives.

Fair questions, dthelmers. As usual with such questions, there is more than one possible answer. Basic assumptions have to be examined first though. For example, who is "we" and how did "we" become responsible for ensuring food safety for anyone other than for ourselves and those with whom we engage in food-related interactions? Sure, no one I know wants to contract or to be exposed to someone who has tuberculosis, but does that give me a right to regulate whether and under what circumstances they can buy and sell food? My answer is no, it doesn't.

We, in my opinion, is our elected government, and I think that it is necessary for that elected government to ensure some measure of regulation so that I can safely buy food from people I don't personally know. This may be an argument in favor of eating local, where the kind of bad practices that sometimes occur in centralized operations just can't happen, because these are your neighbors. However, even with all the regulation we have in place, we still have e. coli outbreaks from mishandled hamburger that would not have happened if the industry wasn't so centralized. So the regulations don't guarantee safety, but can make it harder on the small producer, the one-man outfit. Regulatory bodies have been set up by our elected government, but I feel that they then take on too much autonomy, and become a self-perpetuating bureaucracy, with little regard for the electorate. I'd like to have some protection, but I also want choice, and to make my own decisions. I'd rather see raw milk more readily available, but if there was intentional disregard for health by a dairy owner, send him to jail. Right now, suits can be brought for that sort of thing; I'd rather see criminal prosecution.

Quote

As to whether we could have less regulation, yes, that is clearly possible. Food regulation varies considerably around the world, ranging from none to "tightly controlled", yet humanity survives.

Yes, food regulation does vary quite a lot in other countries. In France you can get raw milk from a vending machine now, and artisanal practices that are not allowed here are practiced there. But in China, you can get milk that has been adjuncted with melamine to make the protein content appear higher, and yet that is a very regulated government, perhaps the most. And yes, humanity survives, but individuals have died from bad practice. An example is the dairy industry in New York City that prompted these regulations in the first place. Practices were very poor, and children sickened and died, so we decided to pasteurize and regulate to keep people from doing it anymore; but perhaps we should have just called it racketeering and sent them to Sing Sing so they weren't undercutting the honest and careful dairymen.

You must ensure that the farmer takes the extra steps needed and not just relay on his willingness to do so. he might get up one morning and be a bit lazy\careless and someone may get very sick.

There is a difference between regulation and accually caring about the health of citizens. see regulations that restrict certain emissions or contaminants yet the Max PPM limit is still not low enough to prevent illness, many times dou to industiral-financial agendas.

« Last Edit: April 16, 2012, 05:26:46 PM by Tomer1 »

Logged

Amatuar winemaker,baker, cook and musician not in any particular order.